Funnyman Billy Crystal will be honored with the Friars’
Club Entertainment Icon Award on Nov. 12. The “Mr. Saturday Night” star is the
eighth person in the club’s 114-year history to receive the tribute.Crystal
joins club members Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro,
Tom Cruise and Tony Bennett as Entertainment Icon Award winners.Read More

Attracting 1.67 million Total Viewers in the Live + 3 Day ratings, Freeform’s “Hocus Pocus 25th Anniversary Halloween Bash” (Saturday, Oct. 20, 2018, 8:15-10:15 p.m. EDT/PDT) stood as the most-watched telecast so far of the network’s “31 Nights of Halloween” programming event. The two-hour special also ranked as the annual event’s strongest telecast so far this year among Adults 18-49 (751,000/0.58 rating). Leading into the Bash at 6:05 p.m., a “Pop’n Knowledge” edition of “Hocus Pocus” drew 1.32 million viewers.Read More

Funnyman Billy Crystal will be honored with the Friars’ Club Entertainment Icon Award on Nov. 12. The “Mr. Saturday Night” star is the eighth person in the club’s 114-year history to receive the tribute.

Mister D:And this my friends is how to handle a fucked up, too sensitive, and over-judgemental society. Especially when your intent was good, but nobody cared, It’s fun to attack people because you think that it puts you on the morally superior high ground. But the really intelligent people understand that you’ve more than likely been misjudged yourself at some point. What lesson are you going to bring to the table?

Bette Midler is radiant in red at the Golden Heart Awards… after her ‘women are the N-word of the world’ controversy.Read More

Broadway fans can bid on exclusive memorabilia, unforgettable onstage and backstage opportunities and more at broadwaycares.org.

Then on Sunday, September 30, the thrill of the auction continues in person when Shubert Alley is filled with theatre fans bidding on the items at the Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction’s silent and live auctions. Even more Broadway treasures are in store along West 44th and West 45th Streets, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, where you can discover tables full of items from your favorite shows and theatrical organizations.Read More

Journalist and CBS This Morning Co-Anchor Gayle King Will Host the Event

NEW YORK, Sept. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — On Monday, November 5, 2018, the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) will host its annual New York Fall Gala at Cipriani 42ndStreet in New York City. At this year’s gala, EJAF Founder Sir Elton John and Chairman David Furnish will honor Ford Foundation President Darren Walker, philanthropist Patricia Hearst, and long-time advocate Joe McMillan, CEO and Chairman of DDG, with EJAF’s Enduring Vision Award. Nine-time Grammy Award Winning singer, songwriter Sheryl Crow will be the special musical guest, and Bryan Stevenson, Founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) and the new National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, will be the featured speaker. CBS This Morning co-anchor and journalist Gayle King will host the event. Read More

A week before Rolling Stone…The 10th Anniversary appeared on CBS, a blurb in The Times-News touted that “a galaxy of celebrities will present a lively exploration of the world of rock music” in a special that “reflects the attitudes and culture associated with rock and its audiences. Comedy skits, musical performances, interviews, and animation provide an entertaining retrospective look at the phenomenal influence of this music.” The reality of the anniversary special, which aired on November 25, 1977, and had a budget of $1 million, was far, far different.

Produced by Steve Binder, Rolling Stone…The 10th Anniversary lacked musical and comedy star power—mainly because Jann Wenner was unable to convince his A-list pals to be on the show, as Robert Draper detailed in his book, Rolling Stone Magazine: The Uncensored History. The magazine also didn’t have enough of an editorial presence. In the “Correspondence, Love Letters & Advice” section of the January 26, 1978, issue, staffer David Felton revealed that he and Ben Fong-Torres left the writing crew after two months. He also apologized for the “embarrassing dearth of significant rock & roll talent”—“Because of scheduling conflicts and, I suspect, because there never was a specific, meaningful product to sell, many stars never materialized”—and noted that CBS slashed half of the script before airing.

The show ended up an unmitigated disaster. “Rolling Stone Special Embarrassing Bomb,” screamed Billboard’s headline. The review characterized the show as “overblown, pretentious, slow-moving, and generally cheapening to both rock & roll and the magazine’s good name.” This wasn’t hyperbole: After an opening skit featuring Steve Martin, who also co-wrote the show, the special unfolded with no real structure or focus. Beach Boys member Mike Love rambled about America, California, transcendental meditation, and “the outer field of life” in a painful, minute-plus soliloquy. Trippy animated interstitial footage appeared every so often, while in another segment, Martin Sheen read the (admittedly moving) autobiographical story of a Vietnam War veteran, who had penned the history for a 1970 Rolling Stone issue.

The performances seemed random, too. Power-pop band The Rubinoos end the show by covering “Hound Dog Man” in honor of Elvis Presley. Art Garfunkel joined Gladys Knight & The Pips for a song, while a fierce Bette Midler performance culminates with Jerry Lee Lewis guesting on piano for “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.” Late The Who drummer Keith Moon tells a story about a burst water bed, animating an awkward roundtable featuring Melissa Manchester, Phoebe Snow, and Billy Preston. Right after that, Moon appeared in a skit with Martin, where he’s destroying a hotel room. (The footage later appeared in 1979’s The Kids Are Alright.)

Perhaps the worst part of Rolling Stone…The 10th Anniversary was an interminable, cheesy, and occasionally offensive Beatles medley. Ted Neeley (famous for his lead turn in Jesus Christ Superstar) mingled with a cast of Vegas-meets-cruise-ship dancers dressed up to resemble members of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, as well as a troupe of dancing strawberries. (That routine, set to—of course—“Strawberry Fields Forever” tickled Wenner, Draper confirmed, and caused then-picture editor Karen Mullarkey to vacate the mag.) A KISS-esque hard-rock band performed “Helter Skelter” surrounded by recreated scenes of violent war footage. A man in a Richard Nixon mask sang “I’m A Loser” directly into the camera, right after cheerful caricatures of Soviet women cavorted in a replica of the Oval Office for “Back In The U.S.S.R.” About the only redeeming qualities were Richie Havens and Yvonne Elliman dueting on “Here Comes The Sun” and Patti LaBelle wailing on “Polythene Pam.”

The response to the special was brutal. In addition to Felton’s nearly two-column apology, the January 26, 1978, letters section of Rolling Stone featured a variety of negative reactions. “Although your intentions were no doubt good in the beginning, so were Hitler’s,” went one letter. “I was appalled and thoroughly disgusted with your TV special.” Said another reader, “What you did was produce something no self-respecting middle-class member of the silent majority would even think was as good as the Osmonds.” Jefferson Airplane, however, was more pragmatic. “Congratulations on your first television special,” the band wrote. “We hope to be part of the next one.”

Incredibly, there was a 20th anniversary special broadcast on ABC (with an appearance by Grace Slick, at least according to one source). Still, where the 1977 special is concerned, “Rolling Stone blew it, what more can I say?” Felton admitted. “Except that one, it will probably hurt Rolling Stone more than the viewers, readers or rock & roll.” That wasn’t true, mainly because the special has been largely lost to time—until this great-quality, full-episode dub a YouTube user picked up at a flea market in 2002, “on a Zenith beta blank tape which was unlabeled.” As a huge bonus, the video features all of the sweet vintage 1977 commercials airing at the time on Sacramento’s KXTV: Look for the Natty Light ads with Peter Graves, a Budweiser ad featuring Lou Rawls, and Ella Fitzgerald in a Memorex short.

Los Angeles Times
POP MUSIC REVIEW : A Rage to Live : Benefit: Bette Midler and friends lead a Hollywood charge against AIDS at a fund-raiser at Universal Amphitheatre.
September 17, 1991|CHRIS WILLMAN | SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

LOS ANGELES â€” The star-studded “Commitment to Life V” benefit Sunday at the Universal Amphitheatre didn’t unveil any new pop anthems for the AIDS era. The leitmotif of the evening’s musical entertainment, though, was nonetheless related to the crisis–the recurring element being old, quasi-inspirational standards or show tunes that, in context, were made to seem positively prescient.

Honoree-performer Bette Midler, in emotionally capping the two-hour show, made sure the full house got the connection. “Now get this,” she said between subdued verses of her old signature song “Friends.” I had some friends but they’re gone/Something came and took them away, she sang, transforming the early-’70s Buzzy Linhart ditty from a cheerful meditation on loneliness into something more definitively dirge-like without altering a word.

Midler need not have pointed out the newfound topicality of the lyric, given the capacity crowd’s rapt attention and the equally ironic relevance of much of the music that preceded her.

Opening the show backed by the Gay Men’s Chorus, Tyne Daly soft-shoed and strutted her way through Stephen Sondheim‘s updated “Together” (from “Gypsy”) as a sort of we-can-lick-this pep talk in song. Also joined by the Chorus, Angela Lansbury sang Jerry Herman’s lesser-heard “I’ll Be Here Tomorrow” (from the 1979 “Grand Tour”) as a happily defiant survivors’ creed.

And as the penultimate performer, earning the lengthiest and most spontaneous ovation, Jennifer Holliday predictably brought down the house with her perennial “Dreamgirls” showstopper “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going“–dedicated to the musical’s celebrated creator, Michael Bennett. No need to point to the irony in that choice: Bennett is among the ranks of the many gone whom the rued disease has taken from the theatrical world.

Many of those performing their one or two numbers, though, made no mention of AIDS, leaving that to the eloquent and/or bitterly angry speeches of those being honored with awards for their work in dealing with the devastation.

Perhaps the biggest single draw for many of the 6,000 attending was a brief appearance by the Commitments, the fictional Irish band assembled for the new hit film of the same name. A loud cheer punctuated the hall when an introductory clip from the movie appeared on an overhead screen, and a palpable disappointment was felt when the ersatz soul group left after its scheduled 2 1/2 numbers–the sum total of the Commitments’ only public concert appearance in America, ever.

Frontman Andrew Strong led the revue through the crescendos of “Try a Little Tenderness” and a snippet of “In the Midnight Hour,” while Robert Arkins (who plays a non-musical role as the manager in the movie, but has his own record deal in real life) sang an effective lead on “Treat Her Right.”

Two other favorites were less expected. Carol Channing followed “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” with an impeccably mistimed comic routine. And the unlikely team of Sarah Brightman and Lainie Kazan dueted on Irving Berlin’s “Anything You Can Do,” with new, fairly uproarious lyrics.

Meanwhile, the appearance of featherweight dance-pop combo the Party on the bill was a fleeting mystery, given the utter paucity of pre-teens in the crowd. Michael Feinstein was better suited to the demographic, but failed to do what he does best–pre-rock oldies–instead opting to unveil a pair of underwhelming modern ballads.

On the more pointed side, the fresh news of the AIDS-related death of actor Brad Davis added to the alternating pallor and indignation in the show’s speeches, including that of honoree Joel Weisman, Davis’ physician, who joined many in excoriating what he characterized as the right wing’s supposed “just say no” solutions.

Republican-bashing was a recurring theme, not only in heated speeches but in comedic appearances by Terry Sweeney (on film in drag as Nancy Reagan) and Robin Williams (doing a riff on Clarence Thomas’s noncommital hearing answers).

Holliday’s song was the best received of the night, but in following her, Midler still managed to top her with an affecting climax–not so much with her songs (John Lennon’s “In My Life” as well as “Friends”) as her whopper of an award acceptance speech. Starting out in character as the Divine Miss M, all baby steps and self-mocking gaggery, Midler suddenly made an abrupt shift from comedy into highly emotive self-righteousness, naming some of the dozens of her “gay mentors” from 1965 onward who’ve succumbed to AIDS.